Personal tax summaries

Sections 33A(5), 80C, 80D and 80KV of the Tax Administration Act 1994; section 15 of the Student Loan Scheme Act 1992

A personal tax summary (PTS) is issued to some salary and wage earners at the end of the income year. It shows a taxpayer's income details for the year and whether the taxpayer needs to pay further tax or if they are entitled to a refund.

Background

Under the previous rules Inland Revenue was required to issue PTSs to several categories of individual taxpayers, including those with over $200 of employment income withheld under certain tax codes. However, issuing PTSs was not always necessary for all these groups, particularly when the correct amount of tax was likely to have been withheld during the year. The lack of flexibility in the legislation therefore imposed unnecessary compliance and administrative costs for these taxpayers and Inland Revenue.

Key features

Sections 33A(5), 80C, 80D and 80KV of the Tax Administration Act 1994 have been amended to remove the previous requirement for Inland Revenue to automatically issue PTSs.

Inland Revenue will identify certain categories of taxpayers to whom PTSs will still be issued or who will need to request a PTS, and publish these categories in the Tax Information Bulletin later this year.

Taxpayers can still request a PTS from Inland Revenue if they wish.

Spouses of Working for Families recipients

A consequential change has been made to section 80KV to ensure that a PTS will not be automatically issued to spouses of Working for Families recipients.

Student loan borrowers

The Student Loan Scheme Act 1992 has also been consequentially amended to ensure that a PTS will not be automatically issued to student loan borrowers.

Application date

The changes apply for the 2009-10 and later income years.